It had been a year, a long year of travelling the universe, following the progress of the expedition before it had become lost. Sophie and Aldred had been to over fifty planets, occasionally going back to Earth to give their reports and for breaks. They'd been to all sorts of planets, alien ones, human colonies, and shared planets, as well as asteroids, space stations and moon bases. Everything was going fine; they were getting closer and closer to finding the expedition every week. That was, until they visited the monster planet.
Sophie and Aldred materialised on a swampy plain, with a forest blocking their view of the rest of the place at which they had arrived.
"This should be the planet Shalron." Sophie said, examining the map they had been following for a year now. "The Eridanus landed here two years ago, in June, relative Earth time."
"Yup, that fits." Aldred replied, holding up a scanning device and moving it in a circular motion around him. After a bit he pocketed it and pointed to the left. "Scanner says there's a settlement over there."
"Let's go then." Sophie decided, and they headed in that direction.
Over the year she and Aldred had become firm friends. Working together every day was the main reason for that. Despite the age gap between them (Sophie was fourteen and Aldred was twenty-three), they got on well and had similar views on multiple things.
After they had been walking about twenty minutes they came upon a large village, with reptilian aliens bustling about. As they walked among the streets, Sophie and Aldred received wary looks from some of the aliens, and greetings from others. This was the norm for the two travellers, so it didn't faze them.
They found themselves at the biggest building in town. It looked like some form of mayors' office. One of the aliens greeted them out the front. Sophie and Aldred both had translator devices, so they could understand what the alien was saying.
"Hello, travellers." She said. "Welcome to the planet Shalron!"
"Hi." Sophie replied. "I'm Sophie and this is Aldred."
"Hello Sophie, Aldred." The alien nodded to each of them as she repeated their names. "My name is Tecri."
Tecri was short, wearing slightly baggy clothes like all the other aliens in the area, had scales all over her body including on her vaguely humanoid face, and huge purple eyes. She smiled at Sophie and Aldred as she stood facing them.
"May I ask what reason you have for visiting our planet?" Tecri asked, not unkindly.
"Oh well actually we're looking for a spaceship that went missing a long time ago, and we followed the trail to this planet." Sophie explained.
"Do many spaceships visit here?" Aldred added, leaning forward.
Tecri thought for a moment. "Well, it depends what you mean by many." She finally decided. "Our planet isn't really the desired destination of most people, but occasionally a spaceship will stop here. I'd say about ten a year." She finished by shrugging.
"Do you know if there are any records of the spaceships that come here?" Aldred asked her.
Tecri thought again. "I think so." She said.
"Is there any chance you'd be able to find out for us?" Sophie inquired.
"Probably." Tecri answered. "I'll just go check, wait here."
She walked into the building they were standing in front of.
"So what do you think?" Aldred turned to look at Sophie.
"About the planet?" Sophie replied, glancing around the street they were in. "It's nice, and I find it really interesting how the people here are so much like humans, not their appearance but you know in the buildings they have, and the clothes they wear and stuff. What do you think?"
"Yeah, I agree with you, those things are very similar." Aldred said, leaning against a pole nonchalantly. "The people seem quite friendly, too."
"Yeah, definitely." Sophie replied.
That was when Tecri came back out of the building.
"Apparently Raalin the astronomer keeps track of visitors from other planets." She told them. "I could take you to see him, if you'd like me to."
"That would be fantastic, thank you!" Aldred looked excitedly at Sophie. A whole year of the doing this and he still got excited whenever they got a new source of information. Oh well, Sophie couldn't blame him. She was just as enthusiastic as he was sometimes.
Telric led them down the street, took a couple of turns and soon they were standing outside a small house, with an intricately painted door and a simple but beautiful garden.
"Raalin really has an eye for nice things." Aldred commented as they walked up to his front door. Tecri knocked twice and a few moments later a spindly man with dark scales opened the door.
"Ah, hello Tecri." He greeted her, then noticed Sophie and Aldred and smiled. "Who are my visitors?"
"I'm Aldred and this is Sophie." Aldred replied. "We heard you were the astronomer in this town?"
"Yes, yes that's me. I'm Raalin." He shook their hands. "Oh come in, come in!" He seemed quite a zealous fellow.
Tecri said goodbye to them as they entered, as she said she had some work to do. So Sophie and Aldred followed Raalin into his house. It was as nice inside as outside. The astronomer led them into a study, with maps and paintings of space on the walls and piles of notes heaped on an overcrowded desk.
"Are you a painter as well as an astronomer?" Sophie asked Raalin, staring in awe at the constellations paintings.
"Well, it's more of a hobby than anything." Raalin replied, staring proudly at the paintings as well.
Aldred cleared his throat.
"So Raalin do you have notes on all the ships that have visited this planet over the last five or so years?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
"Oh yes, somewhere here." Raalin answered, going over to his desk and searching through his stacks of notes.
"The specific ship we're looking for is called the Eridanus." Sophie added. "It would have been a huge ship, three hundred people or so, deep space exploration, would have visited here from the planet Earth about two years ago?"
"Hmmm, that's very specific." Raalin frowned, looking further back on his desk. "Two years ago, eh? That's a while."
"We know, we just want to know if you can confirm that it came here." Aldred said.
"If that's okay." Sophie murmured.
She and Aldred were standing either side of Raalin as he looked through his notes, waiting patiently, when suddenly the sound of a bell ringing reverberated around the village. Aldred and Sophie jerked back surprised.
"What's that?" Aldred asked confusedly, whirling around.
He turned back to Raalin as the bell continued to ring, and noticed that his face had paled considerably.
"Raalin?" Aldred was even more confused now, and looked to Sophie, who shrugged. "Raalin, what's wrong?"
"They are coming." Raalin muttered fearfully, his eyes fixated on the wall. Then he sprinted for his front door.
"Raalin, tell us what's happening!" Sophie yelled, sprinting after him with Aldred right behind her.
Following Raalin through the street, they noticed that the other people in the village were running away too, all in distress, like they were running for their lives.
"What is this? I don't understand." Sophie shouted to Aldred as they ran.
"Neither do I!" Aldred shouted back. "But apparently someone's coming!"
"I figured that but who?" Sophie was even more confused.
"Like I have any idea!" Aldred became annoyed, like he often did when he was stressed.
They joined the rest of the town at the edge of the village as someone pulled a lever and an underground passage opened out of the ground. Some of the people in the town were holding weapons and ushered people down the hole. Sophie and Aldred rushed over to them.
"What's happening?" they asked incredulously.
The villagers with weapons stared at them like they were crazy.
"The beasts are coming!" one of them replied. "Two of the monsters from the mountains have come down and are approaching our village! We must fight against them!"
"Monsters? What kind of monsters?" Aldred inquired. People were still pouring underground.
"Terrifying monsters." Another villager answered. "The worst you can imagine. Huge and with large claws that can rip apart an entire house in one swipe. We had to build underground chambers to escape, and unless we fight them they just destroy entire villages."
"How do you fight them?" Aldred pressed.
"With these." The villager hefted the spear he was holding. "Their eyes are weak, if we can hit them there it makes them easier to defeat but well...." He suddenly looked really sad. "Usually more than a few of us die in the process."
"Do you have any more of those weapons?" Aldred asked.
"Yes."
"I'll help you then." Aldred said.
The villager looked surprised. "Thank you sir, you are very brave."
"Not as brave as you." Aldred replied softly.
The villager went off to get Aldred a weapon, as Aldred turned to face Sophie.
"Sophie, when I go off to fight, you need to stay here." He told her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
"But Aldre-" she was cut off.
"No buts!" Aldred insisted. "Just stay out of harm's way."
The villager came back with a weapon and handed it to Aldred. "Are you ready?" he asked.
"I am." Aldred replied, and then kissed Sophie on the forehead. After doing this he pulled the teleport watch off of his wrist and handed it to her. "Stay safe." he said, and ran off to fight.
Sophie stood there, amazed at Aldred's courage. All the villagers who weren't fighting were in the underground passage now.
"Are you coming ma'am?" one came to her and tugged her sleeve.
"I'll just stay out here." She replied.
The villager looked like he wanted to argue, but hesitated upon seeing her face, nodded and retreated into the cavern. The entrance closed behind him.
Sophie now had nothing to do but wait. She shuddered as she heard one of the monsters roar in the distance. She heard a clash as metal met flesh and a minute later there was a scream of pain. She wasn't so sure she wanted to stay outside anymore.
She was still waiting there, nervous and half-scared of the noises she could hear from the fighting, when it happened.
That was when she heard Aldred scream.
"Aldred!" Sophie screeched, forgetting everything he had told her about staying put. She ran as fast as she could towards the monsters, all she could think of was getting to Aldred, saving Aldred, she simply had to save Aldred. The sound of Aldred's horrific scream rung in her ears as she sprinted harder.
Then she turned a corner and was faced with a heart-wrenching scene that she would never be able to forget.
The villagers had been right about the monsters. They were huge. There were about five villagers circling one of the monsters, which was like a bear with no fur but larger, and was lying half dead on the floor. There were a few bodies of villagers littered around it as well. The other villagers, about fifteen of them, were attacking the other monster, which was up and raring, and had Aldred in his claws as it growled menacingly.
Sophie stood in shock for a moment taking this in, frozen, whatever she tried she could not move a muscle. For some reason the monster was ripping Aldred apart slowly, and the scream of absolute pain and terror coming from his blood filled mouth was enough to shell shock anyone.
Finally Sophie came to her senses.
"NO!" she shouted, grabbing the monsters attention. She threw a stone at it, and it dropped Aldred on the floor in surprise. Glancing at his twitching body she could tell he was in pain but alive. Thank goodness. She then turned her attention back to the approaching monster, whose mouth was foaming and claws were outstretched.
Sophie backed up, and the villagers converged on the monster, stabbing it with their spears, only just breaking through its leathery skin. The monster twinged in annoyance and swiped its claw, felling half of them with one blow. They got back up and kept fighting.
Sophie ran over to Aldred, and knelt beside him.
"Aldred?" she asked hysterically. "Can you hear me?"
He coughed blood and tried to sit up.
"No, no don't." Sophie pushed him back down, and put her hand on his forehead. "Just wait, Aldred. When they've dealt with the monster then we can fix you up, just wait a minute."
Aldred coughed again, and his eyes locked on Sophie's, he gripped her hand tightly. Tears streamed down her face, as she stared at his almost broken body. She knew this was a better fate than some of the villagers on the floor around them, but still, poor Aldred. She could hardly stand to look at him, because a sense of utter pain radiated from him.
The villagers were still attacking the monster. Sophie was surprised it was still standing, after the way the angry villagers were going at it. The monster began to weaken, stumbling back towards Sophie and Aldred. It knocked over a few villagers as it went, the rest of which recoiled from the huge lumbering figure. The monster's eyes locked on Sophie, and she backed away, again trying to lead it away from Aldred.
The monster barged towards her, focusing on her distinctive figure, as she looked completely different to the villagers from Shalron, and his left claw came up, preparing to attack her.
Sophie grabbed up a stick off the ground, not so much for a weapon, but more because she felt braver holding onto something in this situation.
She cringed as the monster loomed over her, about to strike when it was stabbed in the side by a spear and pulled back, twisting around to face its attacker. Sophie looked for the person as well, and to her immense surprise, it was Aldred.
He was standing behind the monster, in complete blood covered glory, staring defiantly up at the creature that had almost killed him.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Aldred hissed at the monster and hit it with the spear again.
Fuelled with fury, the monster swiped its arm down and with one grab snatched Aldred up, who was too weak to fight it in any case, and snapped his neck like he was a doll.
"No!" Sophie screamed.
It was like a nightmare. Blood spurted everywhere as the monster dropped Aldred's destroyed body to the ground and then turned back to fight more villagers. Sophie, yet again, was frozen in shock at the sight. Her breath caught in her throat, and she fell to her knees, unable to think straight.
She looked up, drained of all her emotion, as the monster attacked villager after villager. There were only ten left. With a pale face, Sophie looked from Aldred's devastated body to the monster on a rampage, and suddenly anger boiled in her blood. She saw red, and all she wanted was for the monster to die.
So, filled with rage, she pulled herself up off the floor, grabbed a fallen spear, and launched herself at the monster. Falling short, she pushed off the ground and landed on the monsters back, stabbing at its eye with the spear. It roared and flailed around, but she tightened her grip and stabbed again, in the other eye. The monster was weak now. Sophie kept stabbing, and the villagers joined in, motivated by the way it was weakening, and soon the monster swayed and fell. Sophie jumped off its back just as it hit the floor. As she stood there, staring at the felled monster, the blood rush left her and she remembered the emptiness, the crushing depression of her companion's death. She stumbled over to where his body was, and fell to her knees, sobbing her heart out.
She was there, drowning in her own tears, for at least five minutes. She couldn't think straight. She felt light-headed. It didn't make sense to her. Aldred, dead? No, he couldn't be. No! And yet she still cried. She kept crying until one of the villagers shook her shoulder and mumbled that she'd have to move. She turned to look at said villager, wiping her face with her arm.
"I'm sorry to disturb your grieving, miss." The villager said quietly. "But we really have to move the bodies now." He looked like he didn't want to upset her. Sophie realised just how selfish she was being.
"Oh I'm sorry." She stood up hastily, half choking on her words. "It's so wrong of me to fall apart like this when you've lost so many."
"No, miss," the villager waved his hand as if to say 'don't worry'. "Don't be sorry. We're used to this, we're very desensitized. But we understand that this is devastating for you."
Sophie blinked tears back, and took one last look at Aldred's body, before letting the villager lead her away from the scene of the fight.
Back in the village, the people had all come back up from the underground passage and were gathered in the area in front of the mayoral building, where Sophie and Aldred had met Tecri. Many of them still looked scared, and Sophie saw some little children crying. Again she felt selfish for falling apart before.
"Sophie!" Tecri called out from the crowd, running over. She looked worried. "Oh, I'm sorry you got caught up in all this. Are you alright? Where's Aldred?"
Sophie was thrown off guard by this question, and she just stared at Tecri, short of breath, and saw realisation dawn in her eyes.
"Oh!" Tecri had tears glistening in her eyes as well. "Oh my. Sophie, I.... I'm sorry, it's not fair that this has.... Oh goodness."
"Tecri, it's alright." Sophie placed a shaking hand on the reptilian's shoulder. "Your people lost more than I did today. You have no reason to be sorry."
"But Sophie, it's horrible. It's not right that Aldred died." Tecri said.
"It's not right that the others died either." Sophie replied, her eyes filled with sadness. "And yeah, I'm upset, but if you guys can manage, then so can I."
Tecri just nodded, looking upset. She then mumbled something and walked away. Sophie felt sorry for her, and all of Tecri's people, but that didn't matter now. All that mattered was holding herself together.
Ten minutes later, the villagers who'd been at the monster fight came walking past, carrying the bodies of the fallen. All the villagers, as well as Sophie, bowed their heads in respect. Glancing up though, Sophie saw two of the villagers carrying what was left of Aldred's body, and she had to furiously blink back tears once more.
The next few hours were a blur. There was a small funeral‑like service for those who had died that day, which all the villagers attended. Sophie hung around on Shalron a bit longer than she'd wanted to, but she felt she owed it to the villagers to help them in any way she could. She discovered that the monster attacks happened often and her sense of guilt deepened.
"How long has this been happening?" she asked one villager, Crogil, as she helped him hand out supplies in the town square.
"Oh, about twenty years, maybe longer." He replied, furrowing his brow. "For some reason, ordinary animals mutated and became these monsters, and they have a taste for destruction. Mostly they'll stick to the mountain regions but occasionally they'll come down here and attack us." Crogil shrugged, with a tired look on his face. "But it's fairly rare, and we're used to it, and we're sure that we'll be able to fix it one day."
Sophie felt even worse, and finally she decided she had to leave. She apologised to the villagers, who were adamant that she had been a great help. They were so kind, such good people, she thought. As she prepared to leave, Raalin ran up with a piece of paper in his hand and handed it to her.
"My notes on the Eridanus." He said. "You can keep them."
"Thank you." Sophie nodded gratefully at Raalin, and then stuffed the paper into her backpack, to look over later.
She fiddled with the coordinates on the teleport watch, which now lived on her wrist instead of Aldred's, and set it for Earth, outside Louise's house. After waving goodbye to the villagers around her, she pressed a button and teleported away.
She arrived in front of Louise's building, early evening, and immediately she broke down, falling to her knees. She crawled over to the front path, and stopped when she was right in front of the door, curling into a ball and rocking back and forth. She was still in that position when Louise came home later that night.